Wednesday, March 10, 2010

A Bit About Size

A commonly-held belief about relative sizes is that things are bigger in America than they are in Asia. I found this to be delightfully true in the aisles of Costco, particularly where one finds jars of Nutella.

In Singapore, we grew up snacking on Nutella out of these mini single-serving packs:

Before you scoff at their insubstantial littleness, consider how these wonderful these little packs are as sanity aids on fabric shopping trips with young children. Sanity aids for me, I mean, not my kids. I don't share my Nutella, not even with family, thank you very much. I'd imagine it would be much more convenient to have these little things in my purse than my entire jar of Nutella, plus a large spoon. Eh?

So yes, some things are smaller in Asia. And yes, incidentally, we also do have jars of Nutella here, even if they aren't in Costco sizes.

Some things, however, can be found a little larger in Asia than in America:

I am guessing that a person could possibly find both sizes of seam rippers in America, but I haven't been looking, honestly. Here in Singapore, both sizes are readily available. I forgot to bring one of those biggies back to the US with me when I moved, so I bought a few this time around, from the local market. Very useful for hacking at old bags to scavenge zippers and other reusable hardware.

Drafting update: mmmmm, I have learnt

1 that the side dart has symmetry. It seems that it is more refined to draft this dart (the one that starts at the apex of the bust and opens into the armhole/side seam) symmetrically and adjust both the shoulder and the waist to accommodate for it, instead of just the waist. Who knew?

2 when a person drafts for (young) children, the waistline should be curved down a little in front (about a half inch) to accommodate for their round little protruding tummies. Otherwise, the waist of the garment sits too high on the child's tummy and looks like a badly cut babydoll. Or, if it is a dress, the bottom hem will be much higher in front than the back.

Apart from all this lovely knowledge, my sloper still looks like it was made for a barrel. Mum looked at it and drew lines in red pencil all over it and said encouragingly, "maybe you need to do some more stomach crunches" but we still cannot figure out what I did wrong. I think it is a case of reading too many tutorials and tips on too many blogs and in too many books and trying to marry too many modern methods. Tomorrow I'm planning to just watch Auntie Laura draft it from the beginning and take notes. Nothing like going back to basics. I'll still keep the monstrosity that I drafted yesterday, and take a photo for you all to snigger at. Should be fun.

7 comments:

1 that I am clearly very unrefined seeing as how I never adjust my shoulder based on my darts.

2 that I am a poser who is talking as if she's ever sloped any dart symmetries in her drafted life.

: )

It does all sound very intriguing though. And I'm loving the tiny packets + huge rippers. (Can you believe I'm currently existing with NO seam rippers? Lost my last one a while back and keep forgetting to buy another. Too bad my need to rip out seams didn't also get lost!)

one of my korean mother's prized possessions from the homeland is a tiny, tiny crochet hook that she uses on pulled threads in sweaters. you really can't find anything quite so delicate here in the us.

Hello and Welcome!

I am a gratefully unemployed mom of three girls, all of whom are growing up much too soon! I like piles of warm, fresh laundry, the smell of salt air near the beach where I used to live, making lists, anything round (like heads) and the quiet evenings sitting with the man of the house after the kids are in bed.

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